Recent Trends in Salmonellosis Epidemiology

In developing countries typhoid fever is endemic, spreading through fecal-oral route mainly owing to water contamination, while in developed countries this infection is under control thanks to the improoved environmental sanitation measures. On the contrary, Salmonella infections caused by serovars other than S. Typhi and S. Paratyphi still remain a major public health problem both in developed and developing countries. Several pandemics have been observed in the last decades, some times following epizootics in livestock. At present, salmonellosis are the first cause of food-borne infections in many developed countries, causing huge economic losses. Therefor Salmonella and salmonellosis are nowaday considered one of the main research topics in microbiology and epidemiology.